Satyxis Infantry completed.

 

Barely making a sound the darkwood boats of the Cryxian raiding party skimmed the waves towards the shore and the unsuspecting Cygnaran fortified village ahead. If the moons were on their side then they would make landfall undetected and the raid would be much more swift.

Vabath Blackstrike, Satyxis Lieutenant, almost wished for something to reveal their presence to the enemy, to give some excitement to the raid.

Almost...

She had learned early on to savour an enemies dread and panic when the raiders showed themselves out of the gloom, as if appearing out of thin air like some of Lord Toruk's other soldiers. Besides, what was the point in launching the raid if she didn't get chance to actually kill something up-close, as all Satyxis preferred to?

She ginned, licking pointed canine teeth as she glanced around at her raider cohort. Satyxis sisters all around were checking their armour, sharpening horns and hefting the vicious lacerator chain whips which they favoured.

Their dark purple skin blending into the midnight gloom as well as any camouflage the humans might use, and she'd faced their ranger units before.

Oars rose and sank in the choppy waves as the slaves rowed to the quiet counting of the Quarter-Master, glaring icily at them whenever an oar make a noise in the water. To the left and right, three and four more landing boats respectively, surged forwards along with their own. The telltale green glow of Cryxian Bonejacks shone underwater as the amphibious contraptions made their way to shore, if you knew where to look.

Subdued under a heavy black tarpaulin, their own Slayer Helljack waited, chained to the deck lest it reveal their position.

A cry sounded from the shore, another and another. Then a series of flares were fired into the air and the garrison could clearly see the incoming raiders now. The dusky yellow light illuminating all ahead. Blackstrike saw a platoon of Long Gunners and several platoons worth of Trenchers sprinting for the defences. Somewhere a chain cannon started up and the bullets began to rip into the aves towards them.

Be careful what you wish for, for Lord Toruk will provide she thought to herself, whipping around to face the crew.

“So much for stealth, Quarter-Master as you will!” She snarled.

“ROW!” The Quarter-Master bellowed, stamping his peg leg into the deck to keep time.“ROW!” His whip rose and fell, inciting shrieks of pain from the unfortunates it hit.“ROW! OR YE'LL BE FED TO THE EXHUMINATIONS CREW!”.The landing boat surged forwards like a horse kicked to gallop.

Blackstrike smiled and shuddered at the threat, knowing what horrors dwelt upon the decks of the Black Ship Exhumination. She glanced back towards their own ship from which they had launched earlier.

Black Ship Blood Tempest sat, silhouetted against the midnight blue sky. She lit up ghostly green as her cannon's roared towards the shore, the whistling munitions arcing overhead.

The Blood Tempest glowed green again. Her crew were well trained as any in the Black Fleet but they couldn't reload and fire that fast, Blackstrike thought, when she saw the second ship in the gloom.

The Widower, Pirate Queen Skarre was here!

“Sisters, our queen is here. Her word be law, an' she wamt this raid fast and bloody, an offering to the Dragon! Glorious Dragonfather, master of us all, eternal torment, AYE!” She cried, met with bloodthirsty cheers from her crew.

“YE WILL ROW!” came the call of the Quarter-Master...

 

*****

Here are the finished infantry for the Warmachine army I started.

Some good Horny Women with Whips!

I was taking part in a "point-a-day" painting challenge, but seem to have failed it terribly due to some exhausting shifts at work recently, and the tendency to never seem to make progress on these models as they were on the painting table.

Don't mis-interperate that, I was making progress. one of two basecoats and a wash per night before work, but they didn't seem to be progressing to my eye so motivation began to wane a little around mid-month.

So, Skarre Ravenmane, Mayam the Sly - the Blood Hag, Vabath Blackstrike and her unit of Raiders, the Warwitch Initiate Betre and the Rogue Alchemist Gorman Di Wulfe are all finished.

I also have a finished Pistol Wraith somewhere which I will post when I dig him out to photograph.

One thing I am not happy about with these models is that I picked up a can of Satin varnish by accident at the hardware shop in town, so they have a slight glossy finish, nothing hitting with a later of matte varnish can fix later on.

Also the fact that the camera close-ups are very cruel to the painting, especially as these are metal models with all the imperfections which they include.

The models look good from three feet away on the table and that's more what matters overall I think, also waiting for grass Tufts, but I'm calling them finished for now.

As for the 'Jacks, well...

I got the bases started and the green glow effect done at least.

I also filled out a few more boxes on the Hobby Bingo grid:

Skarre fills the Hero box, Mayam, Batre and Gorman fill the Any Model box and Blackstrike and the Satyxis fill the 10+ models box, giving me thirty points for the month, if I'd have gotten the 'Jacks done I could have filled two Vehicle/Monster boxes and checked off two more lines as well.

Something to aim for going forwards.

More on these soon in the future.

Deathwatch Apothecary Gerhardt.

 

The campaign to retake Attica from the Greenskin hordes had been proceeding to plan under the experienced, watchful eye of Lieutenant Albo. Casualties had been light thanks to masterful use of the Deathwatch forces, Brother Gerhardt thought to himself.

He proceeded along the route scouted by Killteam Von Drak, accompanied by Killteam Seras. The Primaris marines moving as one, they covered each others blind spots and checked for Greenskins hiding in the rubble.

A recent report of a platoon of Astra Militarum lost to so called Ork Kommando's had led extra caution to the Astartes patrols.

Even so, Brother Leto of the Novamarines, threw himself forwards as he heard the ping of a Stikkbomb boobytrap being triggered. 

The warrior launched himself on top of the device taking the explosive blast full in the chest and being hurled away in a cloud of dust and rubble.

Gerhardt was with the stricken warrior almost immediately, his practiced eye running over his companion, it was not good.

Leto was missing his left hand, as well as most of the left side of his torso, which was a mangled mess of flesh and armour.

Worse was that he was missing everything from the waist down it seemed.

Sergeant Seras ordered his Killteam to cover the Apothecary and to address the sporadic firing which had started with the sound of the explosion.

Gerhardt knelt about to check the vital signs of Leto when his right hand surged upwards and caught the Apothecary around his own right wrist in the old warriors greeting.

"The others?" Leto asked in a strangled voice.

"Through your sacrifice they are all safe brother" Gerhardt replied, ducking slightly as a bullet ricocheted off his pauldron. Leto seemed to visibly relax at this news, nodding to the Apothecary kneeling above him.

"Your vitals are failing brother, I can administer the Emperor's Absolution before I harvest the progenoid glands" Gerhardt said as he was actively monitoring his Narthecium.

"No" Leto's voice came fiercely, "I'd rather know that you recovered the progenoids before the end".

"A fine choice Brother" personally Gerhardt thought that all Astartes should prefer to see his progenoids recovered and know his genetic legacy was secure for the future.

"I will ensure that these are returned to Honorum personally"

Leto nodded, moments later he was dead. The deep, rending cuts of the Narthecium snuffing out his life faster then it was failing.

Gerhardt had succeeded however. Reverently he secured the seal of the silver flask into which he had placed the two organs in sterile liquid. 

He placed it in the rack of his medical equipment and secured it closed, this was far too precious to risk loosing.

"Apothecary ready, Sergeant Seras" he voxed as the Killteam made ready to move on.

*****

Hello.

In the ongoing saga of painting all the things I have managed to get another Deathwatch model finished off, namely my Apothecary (if the fluff above hadn't given that away!).

He's built as stock as I like the entire kit. I even followed the example of an Apothecary from the codex, which the black armour and red apron.

Not much to report about this one. He uses my now standard Deathwatch colour scheme, supplemented more by reds and whites.

The fallen Astartes at his feet was a bit of a pain, as there is no way for me to swap out his shoulder pad for a true Deathwatch pad, so I painted it silver to match all the other ones.

It also gives a chance to look at this Marines chapter symbol, which appears on his knee rather than his chest or shoulders.

It's basically a red Maltese cross symbol, which shows that Gerhardt is a member of the Hospitaliers Chapter.

One thing I would mention is that even though in the fluff, Leto is terminally injured, I chose not to model or paint up the wounds other than the few little sections present on the model.

I choose not to take that step as it's not something I feel needs to be modelled, we know what injuries can happen during warfare and combat (look up a reference book), that's not part of my hobby.

Nothing to show for Hobby Bingo for this miniature however, I'm saving my last few boxes on this first grid for my Warmachine project, which is another story entirely...

Until next time...

- Lewis

Point a Day challenge - a Warmachine army.

 

Since January I've been buying used Warmachine/Hordes miniatures cheaply off of eBay.

I used to play the game way back when it was first released and really enjoyed the setting.

What's not to like with a steampunk/fantasy/pirate/Soviet/robot/beastly setting where nearly anything goes?

Anyway, so after having a clear out and discovering that I had nearly all the first edition books barring the last one, I decided to spend a few pounds and see what I could get ahold of.

Shocked by the prices of new gear (seriously check it out, 13 infantry models are roughly £50...And people complain about GW's pricing!), I quickly turned to eBay. 

There things were somewhat saner, if a little more limited.

Which brings us onto the subject of this post, in the course of buying stuff I also joined a Warmachine painting and modelling group on Facebook which is running a painting challenge each month.

This is called "Point-A-Day" and the aim is to paint up at least as many points of gear as there are days in the month, so 30 points at least for June.

I've cobbled together a force using my favourite faction and a sub-faction in the game.

The Cryx, who are steampunk undead pirates who are led by a dragon who is a god!

The Satyxis are a sub-faction made up of warrior women who were corrupted by the dragons presence causing them to grow horns from their head and develop an affinity to blood magic, kind of like voodoo.

My list of things to paint include this little lot which I have based and primed:

The core of the force:

Skarre Ravenmane, the Pirate Queen.

A Satyxis Blood Hag.

And ten Satyxis Raiders.

They are supported by:

Gorman Di Wolfe, the Rogue Alchemist.

A Warwitch Initiate.

A Slayer Helljack.

Two Deathripper Bonejacks.

And a Defiler Bonejack.

The Helljack and Bonejacks are the main draw for the setting, being steam powered (in this case some form of soulfuel instead of coal) robots which have a basic instinct for fighting. You can also bounce spells off of the Bonejacks to target things you can't reach or even see!

I'm going to use this paint scheme from the Druchii codex for 40k as the colours of the army:

I like the black highlighted with red, and the usual scheme for Cryxian stuff is black and dark metal, contrasted with a vibrant, sickly bright green.

I wanted to do something different with my gear.

If I manage to clear this lot before the end of the month, I've also gotten a Mercenary unit of the Devil Dogs based and primed:

Led by Captain Sam McHorne, these humans are Warjack hunters and will fight for anyone who has coin, apart from Cryx...

I'll do a future post with a rundown of the setting in more detail, but that's it for now.

Until next time...

 - Lewis

Hobby Bingo - May Recap.

 

Aside from periodic Raptor attacks, we are very much back in business it seems with Hobby Bingo.

After a poor showing in April, things have improved during May, at least for myself and Chris. Dave it seems has been kept busy at work and with his family, can't fault that, this is out hobby after all.

So, the scoreboard currently sit at:

Lewis - 300.

Chris - 260.

Dave - 80.

I had a good month with my Deathwatch units and working up towards a proper 50 Power army for a solo crusade campaign against my Ork army, a lot of which got painted during Orktober 2020, and a piece of terrain for the glacial ruined city completion.

Chris had a bumper month Claiming a massive 210 points for finishing various projects off and crossing off a couple of lines on his grid.

Dave hasn't posted anything this month. But there is plenty of time yet. 

Plans for June are to finish off another couple of Deathwatch characters, some Orly support units and I'm going to take part in the "point a day" challenge in one of the hobby groups i am in on FB. 

Just it's not GW related, more on that later when I have something to post for it.

Remember:

 - Lewis